Menu

Lunch

Baked Sweet Potato with butter and cinnamon topping

Cabbage Salad

Rye bread and butter

Peanut butter & chocolate trail bar

Supper

Tina Tedrick’s sausage soup

Roles

Yesterday was a great day for my friend Tina Tedrick to show up. Nans was so right when he told me that a good mood was one of the things visitors needed to bring during the month – that might be said on any occasion but in January in Ohio (or The Rhones-Alps), during a time when I’ve not had much socializing, having a good friend show up is downright exciting.

She must have thought I was kidding when I seemed extra happy to see her, but I wasn’t. The morning was a frustrating series of events, including carrying water without the mule to transport, and dropping the tiny bit of goat milk I extracted from Tuti (and breaking it all over the brick floor). When the milk jar broke I had plenty to say that was not repeatable in this diary. Jay came running to see what I was doing, and quickly assessed that he needed to intervene…always the patient one.

By the time Tina showed up I had worked things out with the frozen water, brushed my hair and started over for the day. It takes too much energy to be frustrated, and angry at the same time.

We had a marvelous lunch of herbed chicken broth. The broth was steaming hot from the wood stove and we added other items, served in little bowls, to the broth. We had sliced mushrooms, diced pepperoni, and shredded cheese. That soup was absolutely delicious.

The rest of the afternoon we looked at the World Atlas book (in French) and dreamed about places we’d love to visit. The first place on the list is India. Some of our former students are there working on a project that helps rural villages. It would be grand fun to join them to really meet people and make friends. Of course it wouldn’t be India if I didn’t have a picnic at the Taj Mahal.

We talked about visiting Petra in Jordan – second on my travel list, and Hungary. Montreal seems like a grand place to visit – exotic for those who have never traveled outside of the US. Before we knew it the clock read 3:30 and I was sad to see her go, but not before we scheduled another lunch for the 13th.

One of the things I’m discovering is hard is for me to ask people to bring things when they visit. I can see the importance of people contributing something – as Nans says – good food, good humor, good energy. I hadn’t understood how challenging that would be for me. Tina showed up with a lovely soup she’d made and I apologized for sending out the email that told everyone who was visiting for lunch this week that it would be nice if they brought something. Her comment surprised me; “You’re always feeding us and giving us things so it’s only right that we bring something to share.” I hadn’t thought of it as a two-way street up until that point.

It seems as if the experiment of THANKS FOR NOTHING MONTH – working to live more deeply and honestly is at least raising a lot of awareness by erasing barriers. The barriers of electricity for cooking and lighting, and the stimulation that comes for energy is really quite a distraction. I can’t wait to see what else this adventure brings into our lives.